Conventionally, as a container such as a hopper constituting an automatic combination scale, for example, the following is known. The known container includes: a tubular main body having an upper end opening constituting a loading port, and a lower end opening constituting a dispensing port; and a gate as an opening/closing member provided swingably in a way that the opening/closing member opens/closes the dispensing port.
In the container as described above, the dispensing port is closed in normal state with the gate moved to close. Therefore, food loaded through the loading port can be temporarily retained in the inside. Then, when the dispensing port is opened with the gate moved to open by a given dispense instruction, the container dispenses the food temporarily retained therein through the dispensing port toward a chute that is provided in a region below the container (refer to Patent Literature 1, for example).